After having a week
off, we rolled into St. Louis with the same truck we had here last year.
To kick off the weekend's festivities, I, along with a few other drivers
visited a children's hospital in St. Louis, and said hello to a bunch
of kids who were a bit under the weather. We signed a lot of autographs,
stood for a lot of photographs…and most importantly, in the end, everybody
had a big smile on their faces, myself included.

Once we got to the track,
we got unloaded and did the best we could in practice. The truck wasn't
the fastest, but at least it was consistent. As I mentioned, it was the
same truck we had here last year, with the only difference being that
it had the new Silverado body style for 2000. Chevrolet really did their
homework with this truck, changing (and improving) the aero package so
that the front end had a lot more down force. The other difference from
the prior year was the tire that Goodyear brought. It had a different
feel to it, which forced every team to adapt their suspension setup a
bit. By the end of the practice period, we ended up being 9th or 10th
fastest, which is right about where we thought we'd be.

"The night
before the race, the rains came to St. Louis and really made a mess of
things in the area."

In qualifying, we clicked
off a great lap, putting ourselves 5th on the grid. (Then, right before
the race, NASCAR disqualified the truck next to us, moving us up to the
fourth spot.) When fine-tuning the truck for the race, we had to pay some
attention to the fender configuration. With the new body style, the team
had a lot more down force, but you have to be careful because too much
down force can scrub off straight-line speed. So as it ended up, we had
what we thought was the right balance, but in hindsight, it would have
been nice to have at least one more practice period.

The night before the
race, the rains came to St. Louis and really made a mess of things in
the area. About 14 inches of rain came down, and surprisingly, did little
to change the track. It did however cause problems for our motor coach,
which I will talk about a little later.

When race time came
around, we had to wait out a last minute rainstorm, then, had the start
delayed for just under an hour while they dried the track. Like I said
before, it's amazing how well the track did under the circumstances. When
the green flag fell, it took me a lap or two to get a feel for the truck,
and what I felt I didn't like. Around lap four or five, the truck was
so loose that I almost spun out, but then got shoved up to the high groove
(which wasn't such a bad thing).

I decided to take it
easy, and let the truck come to me. By the time the first round of pit
stops came, I was in 7th or 8th, and felt pretty good about how the truck
would be after some adjustments. We took on two tires, left the pits after
a great stop by the crew, and didn't lose a spot. Not too shabby!